ALAN HACKER is most enthusiastic about REEDS AUSTRALIA product and says (November 2000):
"I have been really thrilled with all the reeds I have acquired in the last year or more. This includes Vintage #4 (which I have used a lot, including on my recent CD of the Mozart Quintet - the best I have done - and my performances at the Edinburgh Festival this year. Indeed this month I am premiering a new concerto by Philip Grange at The Royal Northern College of Music and then at Exeter University using Vintage Reeds.
Whatever happens, as far as I can see I am going to go on using these reeds. The most extraordinary things about them are their consistency, the number of good reeds I find in a box (8-9/10 on first playing!), and above all their extreme longevity. I have tested Vintage XL Reeds, and used them - discovering the same attributes, and find Vintage perfect to my needs.
The new File Cut series is worthy of study too. I have also tried the Studio Plus range. Good reeds, consistent and long lasting too, but of a different character with softer strengths.
These Australians seem bent on bringing great things to the woodwind market, as witness the med/open lay Reeds Australia Vintage AC2 acrylic-crystal mouthpiece which I used for some Turkish style playing on a BBC programme some weeks back, naturally with a softer strength Studio Plus reed. Excellent! At the same time as acquiring that I thought to try a Studio Plus SP1 lay Mouthpiece on a standard French Instrument. I found it fine - beautifully finished off and so inexpensive at about £15 in the UK. Add to that lot the new range of Mouthpiece Cushions and I find myself a happy man indeed!
These reeds have completely transformed playing. I don't simply have 'one' reed but now a case full - all of which I play. Dare I say, but with Reeds Australia I am playing at my best ever!!"